Humanity in Trouble and Our Failure to Act: Critical Warnings, Insights, Jabs and Solutions

By James Vodnik

Mankind is on a crash course with destiny and doesn’t seem to have a clue! We are witnessing rapidly accelerating global warming of our own making that could potentially result in species extinctions, including our own. Witness widespread signs of the impending disaster including super storms, record drought, floods, forest fires and climate refugees. Dangerous nuclear saber rattling by Russia and North Korea is on the upswing and the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens to expand to Western Europe. The increasing number of fascist, autocratic, dictator-run states such as China, North Korea, Turkey, and Brazil are snuffing individual freedoms, denying social justice and fanning the flames of global conflict.  The world’s population is rapidly approaching eight billion and is well past the point of Earth’s ability to sustain us. Crushing poverty, starvation, and dozens of militarized religious and ethnic conflicts. We have polluted our planet with toxic chemicals, oil spills, reckless dumping of trash on land and sea, contaminating the oceans with fish and fowl killing plastic waste.

This book is the result of overwhelming outrage and disappointment with our species, our failure to adequately address worldwide problems that threaten our very existence. We (if there is a ‘we’) should be embarrassed and ashamed. Nature has endowed us with near perfect bodies and amazing brains and for the most part we squander our evolutionary inheritance. And the greatest gift of all, consciousness, is under-developed in most of us. In this collection of essays, the author offers insights into the human condition, the reasons we have run afoul of the natural order, along solutions to alleviate human suffering on an individual and global scale plus some playful jabs at our human folly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889105978

James Vodnik

James Vodnik was born in Milwaukee in 1949 to a Catholic mother and an Agnostic father, this oldest of five grew up in a poor, working-class neighborhood. A shy child, intensely curious, asking questions, challenging elders and the status quo, early on wondering, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ He delivered newspapers as a boy and helped the family financially. He graduated with honors from UWM with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Philosophy. Concurrently, he was a Conscientious Objector to the Vietnam War. As a Zen practitioner, the desire for truth and meaning prompted a lifelong study of the human condition.

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About the Author

James Vodnik was born in Milwaukee in 1949 to a Catholic mother and an Agnostic father, this oldest of five grew up in a poor, working-class neighborhood. A shy child, intensely curious, asking questions, challenging elders and the status quo, early on wondering, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ He delivered newspapers as a boy and helped the family financially.

He graduated with honors from UWM with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Philosophy. Concurrently, he was a Conscientious Objector to the Vietnam War. As a Zen practitioner, the desire for truth and meaning prompted a lifelong study of the human condition.

Dedication

To my dear wife, Theda, who spent countless hours reading and editing this book when I am sure she could have found better things to do with her time! I owe you one, honey. And a sincere thanks to my younger brother, Gregory, the poet, for his thoughtful, wise advice in helping me in choosing a title for this effort.

Again, much gratitude to my erudite friend, Kirk, for the benefit of his masterful word-smithing suggestions! And finally, thanks to my friend, Robin, artist par excellence, for her insightful ideas.

Copyright Information ©

James Vodnik 2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Vodnik, James

Humanity in Trouble and Our Failure to Act

ISBN 9798889105404 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798889105978 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023920611

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

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Introduction

Let me start by saying I really wanted to title this book WTF (what the F&#@*%^) is wrong with humanity but I chickened out, worried that the vulgar, colloquial language would alienate potential readers and quite possibly result in a useful work being censored and deemed unpublishable, despite our First Amendment rights.

However, my original inspiration for starting this writing project was my frequent and on-going incredulity, outrage, and disappointment with my fellow man that more often than not left me with the intellectual and emotional reaction of WTF. I know there are many more of us who feel the same way and forgive me if I am being repetitive, overly obvious, and beating the dog to death, but I was compelled to get things off my chest in a reasonably constructive manner.

With that in mind, you will continue to see the afore-stated acronym used periodically in this book and hope you are not offended.

As if there isn’t already enough BS going around and I mean everywhere, why would I add to it? What qualifies me to comment on the state of humanity and the planet? Well, for one thing, I notice things, both stupid and untrue, in the mainstream media, both video and radio, social media, print, entertainment, government, politics, medicine, religion, and education. And I am pretty fed up and feel compelled to vent, to expose, to correct and call out the unqualified, mean-spirited, greedy, and most importantly evil manipulators in the world.

And to top it all off, a never-ending stream of incompetence and ignorance is flooding our brainwaves and offered up for sale and unreserved consumption to the human psyche. Sometimes I wish there was a God to keep things in check, to keep us from going too far afield from our given purpose for existing (WTF?) and straying too far from nature. I am lamenting the human condition from the perspective of a citizen of the USA but a similar rant could be proffered by a resident of virtually any nation.

However, let me say this at the onset, all this baloney about the United States of America being the greatest nation on Earth, what a crock, what arrogance! That may once have been the case but we forfeited that title years ago, I am guessing sometime during the Vietnam War. If indeed we ever held it, or any nation realistically can, or who gives a damn and what difference does it make, anyway?

Again, what is the point of writing a book that attempts to explain the major problems created by and facing humanity? Well, for one thing, and actually the main thing, I just don’t see much being done to fix this sick planet or wake up humanity on a scale broad enough to keep the train on the tracks.

Does it even matter? You wouldn’t think so judging from the state of the Earth’s environment and the geo-political climate. We have these incredible brains, able to unravel the mysteries of the universe and perceive our status as galactic citizens but we can’t keep mountains of trash out of our oceans. We can’t stop killing one another, we can’t stop breeding in excess, we can’t stop brutalizing nature, and on and on. We need to wake the hell up before it is too late and man, it just might be too late.

Still, we gotta try. Clearly, the greatest problem facing us is global warming, that’s right, global warming, and I will not only use the politically correct term climate change as that just makes it easier for deniers and believers alike to do nothing and instead focus on buying their gas-guzzling, greenhouse gas-spewing SUVs and RVs.

In fact, why don’t we be honest and call it what it really is, global overheating! Pretty scary, huh? But that is what it is and seemingly expressing the harsh truth may be the only way to prompt the masses to action.

How can we be so stupid? And I am talking about the big WE, all humanity. Enough of us have transcended the stone age and the struggle to survive, have devised technologies for safe shelter and uninterrupted food production so as to ensure the survival of our species, presumably freeing up enough brain power to address and solve global, environmental, political, racial and religious problems.

Whether or not one is a believer, atheist or agnostic, we have an absolute responsibility to alleviate suffering, not only for our fellow humans but for all life, both plant and animal. Nature has not endowed us with spectacular brains and bodies only to become food bags and killing machines.

The sentience we are endowed with, or shall I say randomly enabled with, since so many of us exhibit virtually no evidence of awareness, represents the material universe waking up, seeing itself, perhaps for the first time and we are morally bound to honor and advance that phenomenal new dimension called consciousness!

It goes without saying right? Or one could argue that Nature, the Cosmos, Creation, and God don’t give a damn. We are free (apparently) to screw things up, to over-eat, over-populate, over-produce, over-consume, over-kill and so what?

Well, I, for one, am outraged about the condition of the planet, all of life and legacy of humanity but before I offer solutions I have a need to rant and expose some of our folly and ignorance in the hope of setting the record straight while amusing myself and hopefully you my reader in the process. Virtually every thought, word and deed that will be excoriated in this book will inevitably support the notion that you can’t fix stupid.

Lastly, while I am virtually certain that it will become glaringly obvious early on, if not already, this book does not purport to be an academic work but rather represents an opinionated, reasonably educated, carefully considered editorial on society and the human condition. I humbly offer a variety of insights, suggestions for correcting our mistakes, a glimmer of hope and ultimately a path to bequeathing a habitable planet to our grandchildren.

Chapter 1

Starting Out Light. Pet Peeves

There are so many stupid statements, dumb actions and downright unbelievable, moronic moves being made all the time by people that get attention first hand and in the various media and this has been the case as long as I can remember. Some are not much of a big deal but others have consequences and they have been annoying me so I just have to say something out loud in the spirit of WTF, so bear with me as I set the record straight on just a few.

"I said to myself".

We hear this all the time, especially when TV reporters are interviewing people for a story. When you examine this statement, it is pretty dumb and perpetuates the myth that there is a little man or woman inside your head that you are actually talking to. The same as thinking to myself. How about you are simply thinking?

Because that is all you are doing. Or better yet, you are just witnessing thoughts arise because, in fact, that is what is primarily happening. We are responsible for at best a small percentage of thoughts occurring in our brains and our primary duty, and our privilege, is to filter or edit. Not take all the nonsense our brains crank out too seriously. Nor to identify with or act out the gobbledy gook that arises, I call that mentally ill. I would ask all individuals who say to myself or think to myself who, what and where is this SELF that you are speaking to?

"I forgive you".

You just murdered my husband, raped my daughter, or rammed my car in an act of road rage. I find it in my heart to forgive you. Have you apologized? NO! In my opinion, it is pointless to forgive somebody for committing an evil, vile, criminal act when they haven’t offered an unsolicited apology!

That is not true forgiveness, but rather an act of assuaging your own pain and loss. Try grief therapy or mourning, that is what a person really needs. Forgiving an unapologetic evildoer does nothing to enlighten that person, but rather minimizes the seriousness of their act and virtually blesses the commission of future crimes. Best to let them squirm and see the suffering they have wrought. With luck, they will have an epiphany.

However, if you must, then go ahead and love thine enemy but don’t forgive them without a heartfelt, unsolicited apology.

‘How cops get extra vacations?’

Listen up people, I mean you and me and all citizens and taxpayers. All a cop has to do these days to get an unplanned, paid vacation is shoot a black man! That’s right, just shoot a black man; they don’t have to catch them in the act of committing a crime, maybe just have a reason to detain or pull them over, for one reason or another.

Nine times out of ten when a cop shoots a black man, he (rarely she) gets paid administrative leave! This is unbelievable. It is an outrage and a slap in the face of the family of the shooting victim and to anyone with a conscience. Yet, I don’t hear an outcry from any quarter, politicians or victims alike; perhaps the media simply doesn’t report it.

WE are, in essence, rewarding cops who shoot blacks and I believe this should also be taken up by the Black Lives Matter movement. It is unconscionable. Now I suppose in a very few instances, and I mean very, very few, the shootings may be legitimate, say in the case of an armed robber.

However, as we have come to see via the occasional release of body cam footage and perhaps more often the release of bystander cell phone videos, the black men are unarmed, hands up, in the act of surrender. In a few cases, they may be fleeing and who can blame them, there is a strong possibility that they will get the crap kicked out of them or shot. Here’s a novel thought: why not put the shooter cop on desk duty instead of rewarding them with administrative leave, or suspend them without pay?

‘Shoot to Kill.’

While we are on the subject of cops shooting suspects, it is appropriate to bring up another serious problem with policing and that is the use of deadly force. Cops are trained in the use of firearms so I assume they know how to aim a handgun.

Is there anybody who can tell me why they shoot suspects, especially those fleeing, in the back or the chest, and on top of that multiple times? Why can’t they just shoot them in the leg or arm? Or better yet, not shoot at all and instead use their taser, and not multiple times sending the victim into cardiac arrest. It would seem there are a lot of really frightened cops out there or in the least very poorly trained.

"Cop Killers, Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right".

Just as tragic and evil as a cop shooting a fleeing black teen or a driving while black person, is the case of the black (or white), random, cop killer. What the heck is wrong with these people? It doesn’t even the score or stop the bad, racist cops from acting out violently.

In fact, it just angers cops all the more and makes them nervous and more likely to overreact when confronting a black citizen. And how does the cop killer know he is shooting a racist cop? It could be, and most likely, is the case that they are killing a good cop and hurting the BLM movement as well.

"Invest in Disease".

What a crazy thought but that is what the health insurance system does in the USA, it is run as a for-profit enterprise with the complete endorsement of the big pharmaceuticals and healthcare institutions. Is it any wonder health insurance premiums, drugs and medical costs are through the roof?

Some of the highest on the planet! Take the raw cost of providing coverage and jack it 30–50% to pay stockholder dividends and huge executive salaries. Oh, and don’t forget what the insurers pay lobbyists in DC. We are getting screwed. Premiums and deductibles keep going up. I wonder what the pandemic is going to do to the consumer’s